What do I want to read? Far, far more than I'm actually likely to get through this spring. Especially now that the garden wants fixing up and the weather sometimes fails to excuse me from outdoor duties. But here are some of the top tales I hope to get to soon.

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry. Honestly, I'm afraid of it a little. People make fearsome comments about the nature of the ending, and after pushing myself most of the way through The Silmarillion, I'm not in the mood for anything less than shameless paradise. But I mean to read this anyway.

2. The Righteous by Michael Wallace. Read the first few pages and am now officially hooked, which is unfortunate because I'm also hooked on and halfway through a Maeve Binchy novel. I'll have to wait a couple of days.

3. Finding Angel by Kat Heckenbach. I read the first chapter of this, which is available online, and very much want to go forward.

4. The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman. A retelling, I believe, of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, which—as per a review I read on a smart and helpful little review blog—sounds fantastic.

5. Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George. I've meant to read something of hers for a long time, and hurried that up this week by putting this one on hold at the library.

6. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. Several of you have mentioned this one, and I'm anxious to read it.

7. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. The title is so beautiful that I couldn't resist looking into it, and it sounds like good fantasy.

14 comments:

I really really liked the Girl of Fire and Thorns, it's definitely worth a read! The Giver has been on my list forever, I even have a signed copy of it and still have yet to read it, maybe this spring...

Right, I remember you saying that about The Naming. I'll do my best not to read the indices.

As for The Silmarillion, I loved the first chapter or two, but ever since it's been like "And there was the handsomest and bravest and best of the Children of Iluvatar... and then he got corrupted by [insert magical object here]... and then he furthered Morgoth's ambitions... and then he died tragically..." Maybe I'm bitter today because I just read about Turin, who was particularly miserable. But then, you know, I haven't gotten to the end yet. There's still time for Tolkien to pull this around. :D

Well, no one ever said The Silmarillion was a particularly cheery book. I don't actually read it that often because I do a lot of crying. It epitomizes what Galadriel means when she talks about "fighting the long defeat." That all elves & men are able to do against such an evil as Morgoth is merely stem the tide for a while but that true victory comes through the intervention of God.

It's really a story wherein amid all the sadness & tragedy that joy is found in the most unlikely of places. That sense of hope in the midst of despair, a hope that rises above & looks beyond what our present circumstances are. A joy that lifts us up out of this world. The best kind of escapism, if you will. Well, gotta stop this response 'cause I'm starting to cry even now. :)

You're right, and I knew it wasn't particularly cheery going in. I remember the bit about the music in the beginning, and what Iluvatar did with it after Melkor began trying to take it over, and that was incredibly beautiful. Anyway, I'll keep reading and look for more of that in the rest of the story. :)

I'm going to finish Exile and the Kingdom, try to love e.e. cummings a little more, reread One Man's Meat (E.B. White) to pick out essays my sister-in-law would like to read in my letters to her, and find something outside my regular style to enjoy!

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